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Young inventor sweeps up

By David

As reported by the BBC, Telegraph and PA, a 5 year old has apparently become the youngest British patent proprietor, after the UK-IPO recently granted him a patent to a double-headed brush.

right: the brush in action (isn't that Just William?)

The patent application (GB2438091) was reportedly made after young Sam Houghton came up with an idea to help his dad (Mark Houghton, who just happens to be a UK patent attorney) sweeping up in the garden. The original idea was that a combination of a course bristled brush with a finer brush could avoid the need to swap brushes when sweeping up.

The IPKat congratulates Sam on receiving a patent at such a young age. He wonders, however, whether the patented idea really was in fact all his own, as his father insists. Claim 1 of the granted patent reads:

"A sweeping device for sweeping a surface, the device comprising a combination of two brushes connected by a resilient connector;
the first brush comprises a brush head, a plurality of bristles affixed to the brush head and a handle extending from the brush head;
the second brush comprises a brush head, a plurality of bristles affixed to the brush head and a handle extending from the brush head;
wherein the resilient connector serves to retain said combination of brushes in resiliently moveable relation to one another in use."

To the IPKat's mind, this sounds like a case of where the patent attorney (who is not named as inventor) has contributed somewhat more than merely his drafting and amendment skills to get a patentable claim. The idea of the first and second brushes having different bristles, by the way, doesn't come in until claim 4, so is this really the core of the invention? Isn't the real invention the idea of the brushes being linked by the resilient connector? Merpel wonders what effect this might have, in light of Yeda, on who should really be the owner of the patent.

Full post as published by IPKat on April 17, 2008 (boomark / email).